Joe Lacob Q&A

Joe Lacob, who along with Peter Guber, entered the winning bid to buy the Golden State Warriors on Thursday, fought off two sleepless nights to sit through a Q&A. Here’s what he had to say about being part of the Warriors’ new ownership group:

What are your emotions on the day you bought the Golden State Warriors? I’m incredibly excited. This has been an incredible process. I don’t know many people who have ever gone through anything like this. This is not just buying a company. This was an auction against some very wealthy people and very talented and capable people. To win this thing is fantastic. It’s amazing. We also think we’ll have the right process going forward, and we think we’re the right people to do it.

How much can you say about the final days of the process? I don’t think I should comment too much on that. We did a lot of diligence, were in early and stayed in. Contrary to anything that we heard or read, we decided that none of that was relevant. We felt we knew what the franchise was worth, we felt we knew what we were buying and we executed on the plan. If someone wanted to come in and beat us, there were people who could have spent an absolute fortune.

What is your vision for this team? I’ve been involved in the Celtics, so I have something to build off on both the basketball and the business sides. I feel I know something about basketball and I know something about building companies, and I have a great partner who has great skills that are very different than mine and very complementary. We’ve got a vision for what can make this successful. We’ve got to address the on-court situation and try to improve it. They’ve done a pretty good job on the business side, but this is a hell of a market. That is one of the reasons we were interested. I see a lot of upside, but we certainly have to be successful on the court. Our job is to do that. Our job is to turn this team into winners. It’s been a winning team before, but it’s been a long time. We need to address that. We’ve talked about a lot of other things, but that is the bottom line.

What excites you about this opportunity? I think one of the great advantages of buying this team is that it has not had a lot of recent success. They’ve had some bad breaks perhaps. Our job is take what we have and build. We’ve got a plan. We’re not going to be able to do it overnight, so I hope the fans are a little bit patient, but, as a fan, I don’t expect them to be too patient. We’re going to execute on our plan and build a winner here.

What have you learned in your business life that will help in your basketball life? I enjoy and I love building things. We try not to make rash decisions, but we will make bold decisions. We’re going to take some chances. That’s how you take something from a certain level and build it into something bigger.

What have you learned in your NBA experiences with the Celtics? Wyc Grousbeck runs the Celtics, and the great thing about the Celtics is that it is run beautifully. I don’t know if it’s democratic, but he listens to people. He makes the final decisions, but he listens and has very smart, successful people involved. I feel like I understand basketball. It’s a tremendous passion of mine. I tried to bring that to the Celtics. I was in the draft war room each year, and I’d like to think I had something to do with some of the big, bold moves that we made at the right time to get that thing turned around. I would like to do something similar here.

What kind of moves do you foresee for the front office and for the roster? I can’t answer that. It would be disrespectful to Mr. Cohan, who still owns the team and is running the team. I’m sure he’ll listen to what I have to say, but we don’t own it yet. We haven’t closed it, and we haven’t been approved by the league.

Why are the Warriors worth $450 million? I think it’s pretty obvious to anybody who understands the NBA. This is one of the best markets in all of sports. There is absolutely no question about that. It is not only the fifth-largest market in terms of population, but it also is a relatively wealthy market and a very sports-centric market. You take that, you look at what the Warriors are doing in business vs. other NBA teams in similar markets, and I think there is a tremendous upside. More importantly, I don’t want to focus on business. I want to focus on basketball. That’s the core of what we have to do. We need to make this team successful. If we do that, we’ll benefit.

Did you really wear a ”Beat L.A” T-shirt to the Staples Center during the 2008 NBA Finals? Yes, that was very, very fun. That’s what it is all about. That was so exciting. Our goal is that we don’t always think about the Lakers as the prime Western franchise. We want the Warriors to be that. San Francisco is every bit as big and as important a market as L.A. It doesn’t have all of the Hollywood stars, but it has a lot of things that they don’t have down there. We’ve got a lot of big movers and shakers and a lot of creative people. We have a chance to do big things here. Our goal is to put ourselves at the same level as the Lakers. It’s going to be a road up. I realize it’s not going to happen overnight and it’s not going to be easy, but we want to be facing the Celtics in the Finals. By the way, I mean that literally.

How big a basketball fan are you? I’m a sports junkie. I love baseball and football, and I’ve almost purchased a baseball team in the past, but basketball is my true passion. I started playing late in high school, and I probably wasn’t good enough athletically to be great. But I enjoyed it, continued to play and still play full court twice a week. I love the game, and I love to coach my kids. I truly enjoyed my Celtics time, and I’m a Stanford fan and have been involved there –- sorry Cal. I’ve just been involved in basketball for a long time, and I love the game.